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National Library of Wales, MS 4812D. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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The inclosed& you will &
the opinion which he expresses upon them is but too just. There is a sort of insanity in this all this. Falsehood is become
so habitual to him that he seems not to know how to speak truth. – He is now six
& twenty, – there is still time before him, – still opportunity, – & nothing is wanting to save him but the will to be saved, –
& xxx <tho> it is so little possible in the natural course of things that I could almost agree with the
Methodists, that a new birth, – an immediate act of grace upon the soul, is necessary to produce it.
I wished him to continue in the line of life to which he has always gravitated, because I feel
perfectly certain that he will find his way back to it, if he be sent to the Antipodes. And if he could have been placed in a decent
theatre I thought it not unlikely that he might venture at composition & become a dramatic writer, being plentifully gifted with
talents. God knows whether I could have got him an engagement; it would have been very difficult, especially as he objected to the Bath
& Bristol stage, – the only one where I had any acquaintance with the Proprietor of a Theatre.being in his situation it was exceedingly
likely that he should form such a connection as this, & as he could not make the woman worse in point of character or feeling than
he found her, exceedingly excusable. It was also natural enough that he should not represent himself as married to you.x all that results from it is that I cannot recommend him to an
xxxx established theatre, – I merely deprives me of the power of making a very doubtful experiment. but
do you then to Doyle if Do you then apply to Doyle,get the favour of <please> some old Irish
Countess,
_____
My Carmen Triumphale will be sent to St James’s Square for you. It is good for nothing, & I
believe I did wrong in castrating it.
If you recollect that the title of my poem is not Pelayo but Roderickxxx have profited by some of your remarks, & shall curtail the beginning of the
third book.
_____
I have just received yours of the 30th & was indeed about to have written to you upon that very
subject. Gloverthat he has heard that it asserted on the alledged authority of
Thomas Grenvillepossibly it may be asked, the facts
on which that belief is founded. He thinks he shall be able to ascertain his point thro another channel, – but not immediately, – &
would willingly save himself trouble by xx seeking it in the direct course.
_____
Thank you for your Nelsoniana. And one word more about Roderick before I seal up these scraps. There is no more of his
history alluded to than is indispensably necessary to explain the render the poem intelligible: & all that is said, does
in reality explain itself, – or if it does not I am in fault. But a xx Dramatis personae
Return Edwards letter <to me> when you have perused it.